“Alone — here, in this wilderness?” said Ellery incredulously.
“Yes. As a matter of fact, the only way I could get his permission to move back to this house, which belonged to him, was by dangling the bait of free medical treatment before his eyes. I’m sorry, Alice; he was quite unbalanced... And so Milly and Sarah and I — Sarah had been living with us ever since Olivia’s death — moved in here.”
“Decent of you,” remarked Ellery. “I suppose you had to give up your medical practice to do it, Doctor?”
Dr. Reinach grimaced. “I didn’t have much of a practice to give up, Mr. Queen.”
“But it was an almost pure brotherly impulse, eh?”
“Oh, I don’t deny that the possibility of falling heir to some of Sylvester’s fortune had crossed our minds. It was rightfully ours, we believed, not knowing anything about Alice. As it’s turned out—” he shrugged his fat shoulders. “I’m a philosopher.”
“And don’t deny, either,” shouted Thorne, “that when I came back here at the time Mayhew sank into that fatal coma you people watched me like a — like a band of spies! I was in your way!”
“Mr. Thorne,” whispered Alice, paling.
“I’m sorry, Miss Mayhew, but you may as well know the truth. Oh, you didn’t fool me, Reinach! You wanted that gold, Alice or no Alice. I shut myself up in that house just to keep you from getting your hands on it!”
Dr. Reinach shrugged again; his rubbery lips compressed.